Dialogue with Trypho

"I will tell you," I said, "what I think; because philosophy is truly the greatest possession and the most honorable before God, to whom it leads us and alone recommends us. Those who have devoted themselves to philosophy are genuinely holy.

However, what philosophy is and why it was given to humans has been overlooked by most people; otherwise, we wouldn't have Platonists, Stoics, Peripatetics, Theoretics, or Pythagoreans, as this knowledge is singular. I wish to explain why it has become fragmented.

It happened that those who first engaged with it, and were therefore seen as distinguished, were followed by those who did not pursue truth but only admired the perseverance and self-discipline of the predecessors, as well as the novelty of their teachings. Each then believed that what their teacher taught was true.

Furthermore, these individuals passed down their teachings to their own students, and the system was named after the one considered the founder of the doctrine. Initially eager to speak with someone well versed in this field, I approached a certain Stoic.

After spending a considerable time with him, I realized I had not gained any further knowledge of God, as he himself did not know and claimed such learning was unnecessary, so I left him and went to another, a Peripatetic, who fancied himself clever. After a few days, this man asked me to agree on a fee for our interactions, so they wouldn't be unproductive. Because of this, I also left him, believing he was not a philosopher at all.

Yet when my soul was fervently longing to learn true and profound philosophy, I went to a well-known Pythagorean, someone who greatly valued his own wisdom. During our meeting, willing to become his student, he asked me, ‘Are you familiar with music, astronomy, and geometry? Do you expect to grasp anything that leads to a happy life without first understanding the subjects that distract the soul from tangible objects and prepare it for what pertains to the mind, allowing it to perceive true honor and good?’ He praised many of these disciplines, telling me they were essential, and then dismissed me when I admitted my ignorance.

Frustrated by my unmet expectations, especially because I thought he had some knowledge, I reconsidered the time I would spend on those subjects and couldn't tolerate further delay. In my desperation, I decided to meet with the Platonists, who were highly reputed. I then spent as much time as possible with a recent arrival in our city, a wise man esteemed among the Platonists, and I made great progress and significant improvements every day. The understanding of non-physical things overwhelmed me, and the exploration of ideas uplifted my mind so much that soon I believed I had become wise; foolishly, I expected to immediately behold God, for this is the ultimate goal of Plato’s philosophy."